When “deadly” is wonderful

Article heading in an Indigenous newspaper. What would you associate with this heading? [1]

What would you associate with the heading above? Shouldn’t the faces of the people pictured be concerned rather than happy because of the ‘deadly’ vibe that’s impacting the town?

This is an example for how Aboriginal words can be mistaken by speakers of the English language. ‘Deadly’ is an Aboriginal English word for ‘fantastic’, ‘great’ or ‘awesome’. The article reports about the fun and joy people had at the two-day Aboriginal youth weekend Vibe 3on3.

While an increasing number of parents are using Aboriginal words for their children’s names [2] many Australians don’t know how to say ‘yes’ in any of the many Aboriginal languages.

We all know how to say yes in Spanish don't we? We all know how to say yes in German don't we? We all know how to say yes in French don't we? Do we know how to say yes in any of the 360 Aboriginal dialects in this country?—Ernie Dingo, Aboriginal actor and Yamatji man [3]

Some of the many words you find in Aboriginal English spoken in New South Wales shows the following table [4].

Aboriginal words common in NSW

Aboriginal English

Standard English

country

land, home

deadly

fantastic, great, awesome

mob

family, kin, group of people

lingo

Aboriginal language

Sorry Business

ceremony and rituals associated with the death of a loved one

gammon

pretending, kidding, joking

shame

embarrass, humiliate

tidda

girl female friend, best friend, peer

sista/sister girl

female friend, cousin, peer

brotha/brother boy

male friend, cousin, peer

dubbay, dub

girlfriend, female partner

gubba

non-Aboriginal person

duri (doori)

sex

charge-up, charge

drink alcohol

shame, shamejob

that’s embarrassing

gunjies

police

mish

mission

moola

money

Australian language uses about 400 Aboriginal words

Waratah. ‘Waratah’ is an Aboriginal word which is used in today’s Australian English. It describes a stout, erect shrub which may grow to four metres. The Waratah was proclaimed the official floral emblem of New South Wales on 24 October 1962.

Australia’s language is interspersed with words that come from Aboriginal languages. Today around 400 words are in common usage which come from 80 different Aboriginal languages [5]. Most of these words are used to describe flora and fauna or other “things”.

A survey of newspapers in July 2007 found that the most common Aboriginal word is ‘kangaroo’, followed by ‘wallaby’ (which might be influenced by the rugby team of the same name), ‘waratah’ (also a rugby team), ‘koala’, ‘billabong’, ‘kookaburra’, ‘dingo’ and ‘wombat’.

Not surprisingly, all of these words come from a language spoken in the area of Sydney and surrounds where they were adopted early on in Australia’s history. The uniform spelling was established in the 1830s.

‘Karrikins’—a new word from an Aboriginal language

Aboriginal words are still added to the Australian and international vocabulary.

In 2008 the word ‘karrikins’ was added [6]. It is derived from the Western Australian Noongar word karrik, one of the first recorded Aboriginal words for smoke from the Perth area in the 1830s. Karrikins describes a substance in plants that stimulates seed germination and seedling growth after bushfires.

Second only to the original language of Sydney Cove, Noongar has given more words to the English language than any other Indigenous Australian language.—Alan Dench, Professor of Linguistics, University of Western Australia [6]

The ‘Gubba Man’

The most fearful cry Aboriginal people in north-west NSW could hear in the 1850s was ‘Gubbamen’ or ‘Gubba Man’ [7].

This term resulted from an Aboriginal mispronunciation of ‘government’ and it meant officers were coming to take more children away or do other ills to the community.

The word (sometimes shortened to just ‘Gubba’) was later applied to all white persons.

Question: Why does the Warlpiri Aboriginal language have no words for saltwater things?

Aboriginal languages can only have words for things within their local context. The Warlpiri Aboriginal people live in the central desert area of Australia and have no access to saltwater environments [8].